In that day, although but thirty years since, when none but the dazzlingly rich could afford to keep a sumptuous steam yacht in commission the year round, Robert Goelet had a costly yacht, 300 feet long, equipped with all the splendors and comforts which up to that time had been devised for ocean craft. He was born in Conway, Mass., in 1835. A surfeit of money brings power, but it does not carry with it a recognized position among a titled aristocracy. These also were high in the appraisement of property values, for they could be used to make whisky, and whisky could be in turn used to debauch the Indian tribes and swindle them of furs and land. These two sons, with an eye for the advantageous, married daughters of Thomas Buchanan, a rich Scotch merchant of New York City, and for a time a director of the United States Bank. Although the State of Illinois formally retains a nominal say in its management, yet it is really owned and ruled by eight men, among whom are John Jacob Astor, and Robert Walton Goelet, associated with E.H. Harriman, Cornelius Vanderbilt and four others. Upon the death of their father Robert R. Goelet (1809-1879) and their bachelor uncle Peter (c.1800-1879), they inherited holdings throughout Manhattan. The Goelet family is an influential family from New York, of Huguenot origins, that owned significant real estate in New York City . Indeed, so rapidly did its value grow soon after he got it, that it was no longer necessary for him to practice law or in any wise crook to others. Longworth ranked next to John Jacob Astor. Far from it. His wealth is vastnot less than five or six millions, wrote Barrett in 1862The Old Merchants of New York City, I: 349. Peter the Younger quickly gravitated into the profitable and fashionable business of the day the banking business, with its succession of frauds, many of which have been described in the preceding chapters. Peter P. Goelet was for several years one of the directors of the Bank of New York, and both brothers benefited by the corrupt control of the United States Bank, and were principals among the founders of the Chemical Bank. What the circumstances were that attended this grant are not now known. 4 The Railways, the Trusts and the People: 104. In that day, although but thirty years since, when none but the dazzlingly rich could afford to keep a sumptuous steam yacht in commission the year round, Robert Goelet had a costly yacht, 300 feet long, equipped with all the splendors and comforts which up to that time had been devised for ocean craft. At least $55,000,000 of it was represented at the time that the executors made their inventory, by a multitude of bonds and stocks in a wide range of diverse industrial, transportation, utility and mining corporations. This land was once a farm and extended from about what is now Union Square to Forty-seventh street and Fifth avenue. One tract of land, extending from Third avenue to the East River and from Sixty-fourth to Seventy-fifth street, which he secured in the early part of the nineteenth century, became worth a colossal fortune in itself. The Goelet fortune was estimated to be around $50 million and it was principally maintained by brother Ogden and Robert Goelet. As was the case with John Jacob Astor, the fortune of the Goelets was derived from a mixture of commerce, banking and ownership of land. In imitation of the Astors the Goelets steadily adhered, as they have since, to the policy of seldom or never selling any of their land. The factors constituting this fortune are various. These wielders of a fortune so great that they could not keep track of it, so fast did it grow, abandoned somewhat the rigid parsimony of the previous generations. [3], His paternal grandparents were Sarah (ne Ogden) Goelet and Robert Goelet, one of the founders of the Chemical Bank and Trust Company (later known as JPMorgan Chase). We have seen how John Jacob Astor of the third generation very eagerly in 1867 invited Cornelius Vanderbilt to take over the management of the New York Central Railroad, after Vanderbilt had proved himself not less an able executive than an indefatigable and effective briber and corrupter. The founder of the Goelet fortune was Peter Goelet, an ironmonger during and succeeding the Revolution. 5 See Part III, Great Fortunes From Railroads.. John Jacob Astor of the fourth generation repeats this performance in aligning himself, as does Goelet, with that masterhand Harriman, against whom the most specific charges of colossal looting have been brought.5 But it would be both idle and prejudicial in the highest degree to single out for condemnation a brace of capitalists for following out a line of action so strikingly characteristic of the entire capitalist class a class which, in the pursuit of profits, dismisses nicety of ethics and morals, and which ordains its own laws. On one occasion a beggar called at Longworths office and pointed eloquently at his gaping shoes. Ogden Goelet was born on September 29, 1851 in Manhattan, New York . [16] He also owned a fishing lodge on the Restigouche River, which separates New Brunswick from Quebec (which he left to his children). [19] The 32-story building was open in 1957 with National Biscuit Company,[18] Kaye Scholer, Chemical Corn Exchange Bank as major tenants. 2 Prominent Families of New York: 231. The arrangement becomes easy. Goelet, it seems, was allowed to pay in installments. Ogden Goelet (June 11, 1851 New York City - August 27, 1897 Cowes, Isle of Wight) was an American heir, businessman and yachtsman from New York City during the Gilded Age. He was a member of the Jekyll Island Club on Jekyll Island, Georgia. It will be recalled that, as important personages in Tammany Hall, the dominant political party in New York City, the Rhinelanders used the powers of city government to get grant after grant for virtually nothing. We shall advert to some of the great fortunes in the West based wholly or largely upon city real estate. a daughter of John Rutgers. The great impetus to the sudden increase of their fortune came in the period 1850-1870, through a tract of land which they owned in what had formerly been the outskirts of the city. [14], As of 2012, the Goelet's Newport estate at Narragansett Avenue and the corner of Ochre Point Avenue, remained in the Goelet family. It seems quite superfluous to enlarge further upon the origin of the great landed fortunes of New York City ; the typical examples given doubtless serve as expositions of how, in various and similar ways, others were acquired. This estimate did not include $8,000,000 worth of land which the executors reported that he owned in New York City, nor the millions of dollars of his land possessions elsewhere. Peter P. Goelet was for several years one of the directors of the Bank of New York, and both brothers benefited by the corrupt control of the United States Bank, and were principals among the founders of the Chemical Bank. It embraced a long section of Broadway a section now covered with huge hotels, business buildings, stores and theaters. In 1819 he gave up law, and thenceforth gave his entire attention to managing his property. He had a clear notion (for he was endowed with a highly analytical and penetrating mind) that in giving a few coins to the abased and the wretched he was merely returning in infinitesimal proportion what the prevailing system, of which he was so conspicuous an exemplar, took from the whole people for the benefit of a few ; and that this system was unceasingly turning out more and more wretches. This remarkable man lived to the age of eighty-one ; when he died in 1863 in a splendid mansion which he had built in the heart of his vineyard, his estate was valued at $15,000,000. None who had the appearance of respectable charity seekers could get anything else from him than contemptuous rebuffs. John Jacob Astor of the fourth generation repeats this performance in aligning himself, as does Goelet, with that masterhand Harriman, against whom the most specific charges of colossal looting have been brought.5 But it would be both idle and prejudicial in the highest degree to single out for condemnation a brace of capitalists for following out a line of action so strikingly characteristic of the entire capitalist class a class which, in the pursuit of profits, dismisses nicety of ethics and morals, and which ordains its own laws. This extortion formed one of the saddest and most sordid chapters of the Civil War (as it does of all wars,) but conventional history is silent on the subject, and one is compelled to look elsewhere for the facts of how the commercial houses imposed at high prices shoddy material and semi-putrid food upon the very army and navy that fought for their interests.9 In the words of one of Fields laudatory biographers, the firm coined money a phrase which for the volumes of significant meaning embodied in it, is an epitome of the whole profit system. 8 Eighth Annual Report, Illinois Labor Bureau: 104-253. We shall advert to some of the great fortunes in the West based wholly or largely upon city real estate. These stills Longworth took and traded them off to Joel Williams, a tavern-keeper who was setting up a distillery. Land acquired by political or commercial fraud has been made the lever for the commission of other frauds. The drunkard, the thief, the prostitute, the veriest wrecks of humanity could always tell their stories to him and get relief. The fortunes of the brothers descended to Roberts two sons, Robert, born in 1841, and Ogden, born in 1846. [12] He was a sportsman and the leader of the city's old-money social set. Napoleon had the same experience with French contractors, and the testimony of all wars is to the same effect. What set of men do we find now in control of this railroad, doing with it as they please ? These brothers had set out with an iron determination to build up the largest fortune they could, and they allowed no obstacles to hinder them. In those frontier days, a horse represented one of the most valuable forms of property ; and, as under a system wherein human life was inconsequential compared to the preservation of property, the penalty for stealing a horse was usually death. In 1884 it reached an aggregate of $30,000,000 a year ; in 1901 it was estimated at fully $50,000,000 a year. On the other hand, they bought constantly. 5 See Part III, Great Fortunes From Railroads.. Corporation Director, Owner of Large Realty Holdings Here, Succumbs to Heart Attack. He was the largest landowner in Cincinnati, and one of the largest in the cities of the United States. Two children survived each of the brothers. Peter had two sons ; Peter P., and Robert R. Goelet. As time passes a gradual transformation takes place. But as to his methods in obtaining land, there exists little obscurity. In turn these rents have incessantly gone toward buying up railroads, factories, utility plants and always more and more land. Two children survived each of the brothers. The Government and the public were forced to pay the highest sums for the poorest material. Some of the personnel of the firm changed several times : in 1865 Field, Leiter and Potter Palmer (who had also become a multimillionaire) associated under the firm name of Field, Leiter & Palmer. Minutes of the [New York City] Common Council, 1807, xvi:286. This land was once a farm and extended from about what is now Union Square to Forty-seventh street and Fifth avenue. Longworth ranked next to John Jacob Astor. [10], Goelet, and his cousin Robert Wilson Goelet, both graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. 1 Some of this land and these water grants and piers were obtained by Peter Goelet during the corrupt administration of City Controller Romaine. The wealth of the Rhinelander family is commonly placed at about $100,000,000. The founder of the Goelet fortune was Peter Goelet, an ironmonger during and succeeding the Revolution. But the singular continuity does not end here. The growth of the city kept on increasingly. Longworth had been born in Newark, N.J., in 1782, and at the age of twenty-one had migrated to Cincinnati, then a mere outpost, with a population of eight hundred sundry adventurers. Their policy was much the same as that of the Astors constantly increasing their land possessions. The Goelets were three brothers descended from Peter Goelet, an ultra-wealthy 19th century ironmonger who used profits from the Revolutionary War to buy up Manhattan real estate. After a funeral service at St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue, he was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. The rent-racked people of the City of New York, where rents are higher proportionately than in any other city, have sweated and labored and fiercely struggled, as have the people of other cities, only to deliver up a great share of their earnings to the lords of the soil, merely for a foothold. The Goelet family, originally hardware merchants, were socially prominent for generations and were at the top of the social ladder in Victorian New York. In the last ten years the value of the Goelet land holdings has enormously increased, until now it is almost too conservative an estimate to place the collective fortune at $200,000,000. And while on this phase, we should not overlook another salient fact which thrusts itself out for notice. Subsequently the firm became Field, Leiter & Co., and, finally in 1887, Marshall Field & Co.10 The firm conducted both a wholesale and retail business on what is called in commercial slang a cash basis: that is, it sold goods on immediate payment and not on credit. It is usually set forth, in the plenitude of eulogistic biographies, that their thrift and ability were the foundation of the familys immense fortune. RELATIVES HERE NOT TOLD Rich Bachelor Spends Much of His Time at His Sandricourt Estate in France", "Anne-Marie Goelet, Legion of Honor Officer", "ROBERT W. GOELET WEDS MLLE. Ogden Goelet was an American heir, businessman and yachtsman from New York City during the Gilded Age. When twenty-one he went to Chicago and worked in a wholesale dry goods house. His personal habits were considered repulsive by the conventional and fastidious. GUESTIER; Rich New Yorker Married to Daughter of Bordeaux Landowner by a Civil Ceremony", "TROTH ANNOUNCED OFF MISS FANNER; She Will Be Married to John Goelet, Who Was Graduated From Harvard in '53", "Paid Notice: Deaths MANICE, BEATRICE GOELET", "BEATRICE GOELET, H. F. MANICE MARRY; Daughter of Late Robert W. Goelet Married to Former Lieutenant in the Navy", "Goelet, Robert G. (Robert Guestier), 1924- - Biodiversity Heritage Library", "Goelet, Robert G. (Robert Guestier), 1924-", "Chemical Bank & Trust Chooses a New Director", "Francis Goelet, Philanthropist And Music Lover, 72, Is Dead", "Robert Walton Goelet's 'Southside' Estate, Newport, RI: Robert Yarnall Richie Photograph Collection", DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Robert Walton Goelet's 'Southside' Estate, Newport, RI, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Walton_Goelet&oldid=1033905769. The stock of the Chemical Bank, quoted at a fabulous sum, so to speak, is still held by a small, compact group in which the Goelets are conspicuous. The founder, Peter Schermerhorn, was a ship chandler during the Revolution. Then after the beggar left, Longworth sent a boy to the nearest shoe store, with instructions to get a pair of shoes, but in no circumstances to pay more than a dollar and a half. There he studied law and was admitted to practice. Goelet, it seems, was allowed to pay in installments. This eccentric was very melancholy and, apart from his queer collection of pets, cared for nothing except land and houses. All available accounts agree in describing him as merciless. The landed property of the Goelet family on Manhattan Island alone is estimated at fully $200,000,000. It was established that Government officials were in collusion with the contractors. His two sons continued the business of ship chandlers ; one of them Peter the Younger was especially active in extending his real estate possessions, both by corrupt favors of the city officials and by purchase. Some of the personnel of the firm changed several times : in 1865 Field, Leiter and Potter Palmer (who had also become a multimillionaire) associated under the firm name of Field, Leiter & Palmer. On the other hand, the feminine possessors of American millions, aided and abetted doubtless by the men of the family, who generally crave a blooded connection, lust for the superior social status insured by a title. Robert and Ogden jointly controlled the family fortune of tens of millions of dollars and, beginning in the early 1880's, embarked on an ambitious construction campaign that included the 1883 . This estimate was confirmed to a surprising degree by the inventory of Fields executors reported to the court early in 1907. In 1860 he was made a partner. By this manipulation, private individuals not only got this immensely valuable railroad for practically nothing, but they received, or rather the laws (which they caused to be made) awarded them, a present of nearly four millions for their dexterity in plundering the railroad from the people. Brothers Robert Goelet (1841-1899) and Ogden Goelet (1846-1897) were the scions of a wealthy New York family that had made vast investments in real estate over several generations. Thus, like the Astors and other rich landholders, partly by investments made in trade, and largely by fraud, the Goelets finally became not only great landlords but sharers in the centralized ownership of the countrys transportation systems and industries. Cincinnati, with its population of 325,902,7 pays incessant tribute in the form of a vast rent roll to the scions of the man whose main occupation was to hold on to the land he had got for almost nothing. These also were high in the appraisement of property values, for they could be used to make whisky, and whisky could be in turn used to debauch the Indian tribes and swindle them of furs and land. CHAPTER VIII This they could easily do for two reasons. Little by little, scarcely known to the people, laws are altered ; the States and the Government, representing the interests of the vested class, surrender the peoples rights, often even the empty forms of those rights, and great railroad systems pass into the hands of a small cabal of multimillionaires.